OPPOSITES IN NATURE TELL A BEAUTIFUL & DARK STORY NOW
SIMEN JOHAN
Consider the opposite of an ecosystem -- where life and land normally not found together are juxtaposed. Photographer Simen Johan explores this idea in his beautiful series, “Until Kingdom Comes.”
Some of Johan’s images actually are straight photographs, but most are constructed or manipulated. He likes to create more than he likes to merely document what he observes.
Johan first began by merging digital manipulation with traditional darkroom techniques. He then went on to develop a hybrid form of image - one that integrates candidly photographed animals and landscapes with a compositional structuring.
Johan combines image elements that he photographed in a wide range of international locations. Animals are stripped into settings that are quite opposite of their norm. Some are jarring, while others seem rather normal.
The opposing natural life forces in each image also convey a sense of fragility and urgency as natural environments are changing due to global warming and other human impacts.
The images are deeply emotional. While Johan is inspired by beauty in nature, beauty alone, doesn’t reflect his experience of the world, which is more complex and multilayered. His images also incorporate “darker qualities.”
The familiar becomes unfamiliar and the boundaries between what’s real and unreal, or what’s beautiful and what’s threatening, begin to blur. Incongruence puzzles and concerns. Patterns, colors and textures play differently than usual.
Simen originally studied film, before photography. That comes through in his images, which are are highly conceptual in theme, exposing the opposites in both their beauty and their threat. They feel painterly -- even cinematic.
Talking about his project, Johan writes, “When working on an image, I strive to create tension and confuse the boundaries between opposing forces, such as the familiar and the otherworldly, the natural and the artificial, the amusing and the eerie.”
“I often feel like I am attempting to reconcile the irreconcilable as I explore the paradoxical nature of existence, its simultaneous abundance of beauty and horror.”
See more of Simen Johan’s works at Yossi Milo Gallery and on his website.
Read more about Beautiful Opposites in Beautiful Opposite: Big & Small, The Beautiful Nature of Mirror Opposites, Sweet Hot Ice!, 10 Images with Opposite Beauty Now, Polar Opposites: Common Beauties & Dangers Now and Beautiful Opposites Attract & Inspire Now.
And check out more beautiful things happening now in BN Arts/Design, Nature/Science, Food/Drink, Place/Time, Mind/Body, and Soul/Impact Daily Fix posts.
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IMAGE CREDITS:
All images by Simen Johan. “Until Kingdom Comes” Series.
